A season of unprecedented expectations couldn’t have started much better for No. 7 Stanford.

First-year coach David Shaw’s team was efficient and dominant Saturday in a 57-3 victory over San Jose State at Stanford Stadium.

Quarterback Andrew Luck threw for two touchdowns and rushed for one before departing late in the third quarter.

The defense held SJSU to 27 yards rushing. The special teams produced two long returns, and there were no apparent injuries to the elite players.

If the Stanford band’s rendition of the national anthem had been a bit sharper, this would have been a near-perfect season opener for the Cardinal.

“We put up 57 points in large part because our defense and special teams put us in situations that it was almost like you’re so close to the goal line, you can’t mess up,” said Luck, who was 17 of 26 passing for 171 yards. “But I don’t think we’re satisfied.”

Luck, the Heisman Trophy favorite, called his performance “average” and said there were “some throws I’d like back.”

Stanford also missed a few blocks and whiffed on some tackles.

Oh, and it rushed for only 141 yards.

But given the potential for major mistakes in Week One — and given all the upsets and close calls around the country Saturday — the Cardinal had little to complain about in scoring more points in a season opener than it has since 1969.

It committed no turnovers and had just three penalties. It scored on all eight trips into the red zone, forced a safety — its first in three years — and harassed SJSU quarterback Matt Faulkner throughout the game.

When your average starting field position is the 50-yard line, how bad can it be?

“We were missing on a lot of plays,” safety Michael Thomas said. “To have all those mistakes and come away with a big victory is great for our morale.”

Stanford converted a field goal on its first possession and scored touchdown on its second as Luck outran SJSU to the pylon.

Meanwhile, the defense stuffed the Spartans at every turn and forced two first-half fumbles.

“Stanford’s got a really physical (defensive line),” SJSU coach Mike MacIntyre said. “We couldn’t run the ball against them like we wanted to.”

The Cardinal broke the game open late in the first quarter when defensive end Ben Gardner recovered a fumble at the SJSU 13-yard line. On the next play, Luck found tight end Zach Ertz in the right corner of the end zone for a 17-0 lead.

In all, 10 players caught passes, and seven ran the ball.

“The biggest thing I take out of this game is we’re a deeper team than people thought we were,” Shaw said.

The defensive highlight for Stanford came late in the first half, when linebacker Chase Thomas delivered a jarring sack that separated Faulkner from the ball. Defensive end Henry Anderson scooped it up and rumbled 37 yards before being tackled at the 1-yard line.

Three plays later, Luck hit fullback Ryan Hewitt for a touchdown that pushed the lead to 27-0.

“We do a lot of turnover drills in practice,” said Anderson, a redshirt freshman. “But I never thought I’d have to run 50 yards.”

Luck returned for the third quarter and directed two touchdown drives before being pulled.

Receiver Chris Owusu showed no ill effects from a knee injury that limited his playing time last season and required surgery. He caught seven passes for 76 yards and returned a kickoff 59 yards.

“It was fun to get back out there,” he said.

Luck awarded Shaw the game ball after he did what Bill Walsh, Denny Green and Jim Harbaugh could not — win his first game as Stanford’s head coach.

“We’re so excited to have him,” Luck said of Shaw.

(Walsh, Green and Harbaugh opened their Cardinal careers against ranked opponents.)

Stanford athletic director Bob Bowlsby declined to comment on specifics of reports that Oklahoma was close to joining the Pac-12, perhaps along with Oklahoma State, Texas and Texas Tech.

“I suspect there are a lot of cards in play,” Bowlsby said.

The announced crowd of 47,816 represents the number of tickets distributed. The in-house attendance was about 40,000.

Stanford’s nine-game winning streak is its longest since 1951 and the fourth-longest in school history.

Jon Wilner has been covering college sports for decades and is an AP top-25 football and basketball voter as well as a Heisman Trophy voter. He was named Beat Writer of the Year in 2013 by the Football Writers Association of America for his coverage of the Pac-12, won first place for feature writing in 2016 in the Associated Press Sports Editors writing contest and is a five-time APSE honoree.

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